Hołownia: Kamiński and Wąsik can come to parliament on my terms, they are no longer MPs

In an interview for TVN24 on Thursday evening, Marshal (speaker) of the Sejm (lower chamber of the Polish parliament) Szymon Hołownia addressed, among other things, the issue of the pardon granted by President Andrzej Duda to former ministers in the previous government - Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik - who had been released from prison on Tuesday (Jan. 23).

Asked what he would do if the two politicians showed up in the Sejm, Hołownia said: "I have a simple message to former MPs Mr Kamiński and Mr Wąsik: by all means, they can show up in the Sejm, but they will do so on my terms. For one simple reason. If they claim to be MPs, they are obliged, based on Article 7 of the Standing Orders of the Sejm, to comply with the speaker's commands."

"And if they are not MPs, they must comply with the speaker's orders pursuant to Article 10 of the Standing Orders of the Sejm because it is the Marshal of the Sejm who is responsible for keeping order in the Sejm. In any case, they must comply with the speaker's commands," he continued.

"So this meeting - as the Sejm Statute indicates - if it takes place, it will take place on my terms, and no one will set conditions for me and no one will threaten me," Hołownia stressed.

President Duda on Tuesday pardoned two members of the former government, former interior minister Mariusz Kamiński and his deputy Maciej Wąsik, who were then released from prison at his urging, in line with demands from the main opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party that lost power last month.

They were jailed this month after being sentenced for abuse of power in their previous roles. Both men went on hunger strike, claiming to be "political prisoners", and their jailing triggered large protests by tens of thousands of PiS supporters.

Duda, a PiS ally, had pardoned both politicians after they were first sentenced in 2015 but Poland's Supreme Court deemed his move invalid, saying a presidential pardon could not be granted before a final ruling in the case was issued.

The two men then served in the nationalist PiS government but the Supreme Court said last year the case should be reopened. They were sentenced to two years in prison in December, when a new centrist coalition took power in Poland.

Within days of their imprisonment, Duda announced that he had started the process of pardoning them for a second time.